Octave-key mechanism for musical instruments



March 26, 1929.

A. LOOMIS OCTAVE KEY MECHANISM FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Filed Jan. 21, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. LooMis March 26, 1929.

OCTAVE KEY MECHANISM FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed Jan. 21, 1927 WW2? dllm [0 Patented Mar. 26, 1929'.

UNITED STATES ALLEN LOOMIS, OF ELKHART, ILTDIANA.

OCTAVEKEY MECI-IANISM FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Application filed January 21, 1927.

This invention relates to musical instruments of the wood wind type and to the oc tave keys of such instruments. More particularly it is concerned with mechanisms of the type disclosed in my prior Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,585,295, dated May 18, 1926, and especially to the adaptation of such a mechanism to instruments having body tubes which are substantially or nearly straight as to the parts where the octave holes are located.

The illustration of the invention herein given is one designed for straight soprano saxophones, but in principle, and 1n more or less nearly complete detail also, is applicable to other instruments of the wood wind type which have octave holes, wherefore such illustration is not to be construed as a limitation of the protection which I claim. Such protection extends to all equivalent forms of the mechanism herein described, and the combination of such mechanism, or its equivalents, with all instruments of the wood wind type to which it may be usefully applied. The term wood wind type as here used, means musical instruments having the distinguishing characteristic of a body tube containing a vibratablecolunm of air and lateral holes adapted to be opened and closed for determining the length of the vibrating air column, and hence the pitch of the emitted note, whether actually made of wood, or of metal or of other material.

The objects of the invention are the same in general as set forth in my said prior patent, and include further the object of applying these principles in a compact and simple form, with a minimum of parts, to musical instruments having a substantially straight body tube.

In the accompanying drawings,-

Fig. 1 is a perspective View showing the upper part of a straight saxophone having an octave key mechanism embodying this invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic or development View showing the "parts of the octave key mechanism all resolved into a single plane.

Like reference characters designate the same parts in both figures.

The numeral 3 designates the body tube of a, straight, or substantially straight, saxophone, and typifies other instruments of the wood wind type also. Only so much of the instrument and of the key mechanisms Serial No. 162,430.

applied thereto as is necessary for illustratlon of this mventlon are shown 111 the present drawings. But it is to be understood that a reed or other suitable appliances for causing vibration of the air column in the tube, and suitable keys for the tone holes, are, or may be, used with any instrument containing this invention.

The numerals l and 5 represent the stop pers or covers which. cover the lower and upper octave holes respectively.

The stopper at is connected to an arm ('3 secured to a sleeve 7 having a rotative bearing on a rod 8, which rod is mounted in posts or pillars 9 and 10 secured to the body tube and is substantially parallel to said tube. Other sleeves, some of which are shown in this drawing and others are omitted for the sake of clearness, strung on the rod 8 prevent the sleeve 7 from being shifted endwise. The rod 8 provides a fixed axis for the stopper 4 approximately or nearly in the plane of the rim of the octave hole un der the stopper, and so enables the stopper to open and close without-sh ding or scufiing across such rim.

Sleeves 11 and 12 are also mounted on the pivot rod 8 adjacent to the supporting posts respectively. Sleeve 11 carries an arm 13 overlying the stopper eland a second arm 14: located where it willbe out of the way of other parts. Sleeve 12 carries arms 15 and 16, the latter of which is parallel to the, arm 14 and is connected therewith rigidly by a bridge rod 17. Arm 15. carries a stopper or cover 18 for one of the tone holes of the instrument, and to this cover is secured a finger key 19. The arms 15 and 13 project to different sides of the pivot rod and appreach different sides of the body tube, clearing such tube by distances enough to permit limited angular movement. A spring 20 is mounted in the post or pillar 10 and bears on a hook 211 aliixed to sleeve 12, normally depressing arm 13 against the cover 41 and raising the cover or stopper 18 and its attached finger key 19.

In this specification the term raised, or

terms of similar import, when appliedto designate the movement of, or pressure applied to'er by, a key or stopper, or parts associated therewith, signifies movement or pressure away from the body, whatever the direction of such movement or pressure may be with respect to the horizontal, and the term depressed, or terms of equivalent import, used in the same connection, means 11'10V01110Ht or pressure toward the body.

The stopper 5 for the upper octave hole carried by an arm 22 secured to a sleeve 25, which is mounted rotatively on a pivot or hearing pin held at its ends in posts or pillars 2t and 25 projecting from the instrument body. A second arm 26 is secured to the sleeve 28, projecting, therefrom in approximately the same direction the arm 22, and carrying an abutment stud or finger 26. A spring 27 is mounted in the post 25 and bears on a hook 28 which projects from the sleeve 23, said spring; thereby applying 'lorce tending to close the stopper 5.

Connection is made between the two octave hole stoppers through a floating lever 29 mounted on a carrier consisting of two arms 31 and 32 and a sleeve 33 to which said arms are secured in parallel. Said sleeve is mounted to turn about a pivot rod Bl held in posts or pillars and 36' projecting rein the instrument body. The arms 31 and 32 carry, and are connected by, a pivot pin 3'7, on which the floating lever 29 and a hub or sleeve 38, secured thereto and fitting between the arms, have their bearing.

One arm of the floating lever 29 is connected to the arm 6 of the lower octave hole stopper by a pin 39 projecting from the arm 6 and pivotally supporting a slide block or cross head which occupies in a sliding manner a notch or slot or guideway in the adjacent arm oi the floating lover. The opposite arm 29 oi. the floating lever extends under the abutment projection 26 and adapted to press against said abutment, and to be pressed upon thereby under the influence of spring 27. A finger key li is socured to the sleeve 33 of the floating; lever -arrier and is adapted to be depressed by the performers thumb. A spring t is mounted in the pillar 35 and is engaged with a hook 42 on sleeve 33, tending: to raise key 421 and depress the pivot pin 37. The keys 19 and -11 are typical in a broad way of any digit operated keys which may be applied to this or any equivalent mechanism to move the parts at the will of the performer.

It will be noted that the pivot axes of both octave hole stoppers, the floating lever, and the floating lever carrier, are all substantially parallel to the body tube and to each other; that both arms of the floating lever are in the same plane, or substantially so, which plane is transverse to their axis and to the body.

The tendency of the springs 20, 27 and 43 is to close both octave hole stoppers, all cooperating to this end. No spring applied directly to the lower octave stopper arm (3, but this arm is freely rotatable about its pivot rod and is moved only as it is acted on by the springs above named and the parts aflectcd thereby. It is normally held in closed position by the spring 20 acting through the prcsser arm 13. Spring 27 causes the arm 26 to press againstthe floating lever arm 29 and to press the latter toward. the instrument body, against which it bears, except when moved away therefrom by superior force. Its point of bearing is preferably protected by a cork or equivalent butler all. The spring 41-8 of the floating): lever carrier exerts downward pressure on the heating lever pivot and thereby, in com nrction with the reaction of the floating lever arm 25)" on the instrument body, normally exerts a. firm downward pressure on the arm (3, closing' the octave hole even when the pressure o'l a rin l3 is removed by depress on oi" key 19.

Depression of key 1!) alone raises the arm 13 and removes the pressure of spring-1' 20 from the lower octave key, but without openinn; his hole. l Jcprcssionof key 41 when the key if) is also depressed has the elli'ect oi, opening the lower octave hole by raising the main pa t of the floating lever and swinging at the same time about the abutment lii'iger 26 as a fulcrum. But if key "ll alone is depressiwl, the floating lever is turned about the pin 39 as a fulcrum while its own pivot is raised, whereby its arm 29 raises the arms 26 and 22 and opens the upper octave hole. This last effect occurs because the spring 20 is made sulliciently still" to exert greater resistance than is c);-

the spring 27 to the forces acting upon and through the floating lever when the key 41 is depressed.

: 'ollows from the actions just described he upper octave hole is properly opened laying notes in the middle and upper 01s of the instrument by the perlormdepressing the key 4-1 alone, and that where a transition from one register to another requires the conditions or the octave holes to be reversed, such reversal is automatically effected by the performer pressing; upon or releasing the tone key l9 while continuing to press on the key 41. But both octave holes may remain closed for playing all notes in the lower register, provided the perfor ier does not then press upon the key \Vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a musical instrument of the wood wind type having two octave holes, stoppers for said holes pivotally supported from the instrument body, a floating lever carrier also pivotally supported from said body, a heatinc; lever pivotally supported by said carrier, an arm carryingone of said stoppers, another arm in rigid connection with the first named arm and projecting in the same direction as the latter from its pivot, engaged with one arm of said floating lever, and a pivotal connection between the other arm of said floating lever and the other octave hole stopper.

2. In a musical instrument of the wood wind type having two octave holes, stoppers for said holes pivoted on fixed axes substantially parallel to the body of the instrument,

an arm carrying one of said stoppers, asecond arm rigidly connected with the first its and engaged respectively with the before named second arm and with the other octave hole stopper.

3. A musical instrument of the wood wind type having a substantially straight body and two octave holes, a stopper pivotally supported for closing and opening one of said holes, a floating lever having one arm coupled to said stopper and having a second arm arranged to bear on the instrument body, 'a carrier pivotally supported from the instrument body and to which the floating lever is pivoted, a second octave hole stopper mounted to turn about an axis substantially parallel to the instrument body, an arm longitudinally separated from the last named stopper to turn about the same axis and rigidly connected therewith, said arm being arranged to engage the second floating lever arm and in approximately the same plane therewith, and a spring mounted to apply force to said connected octavehole stopper and arm urging the stopper toward its hole and the arm toward the floating lever.

41-. In a musical instrument of the Wood wind type, a substantially straight body tube, a longitudinally extending pivot supported from said tube, an upper octave hole stopper, an arm carrying said stopper rotatably mounted on said pivot, a second arm rigidly connected to said stopper mounted rotatably on the same pivot and extending therefrom in the same direction as the stopper carrying arm, a floating lever carrier pivotally supported from the body tube, a floating lever pivotally mounted on said carrier at one side of the axis thereof having one arm extending between the body tube andabutting portion of the second named arm, a second octave hole stopper, and flexible coupling means between the last named stopper and a second arm of the floating lever.

5. A musical instrument of the Wood wind type having a substantially straight body and octave holes spaced apart longitudinally, stoppers for said octave holes, arms carrying the respective stoppers, both mounted to turn about axes substantially parallel with the instrument body, a floating lever having two arms in approximatel the same plane transverse to the body tu e, one of which arms is articulated to the arm of the lower octave hole stopper and the other lies adjacent to said body, a carrier for said floating lever pivotally supported from the body on an axis substantially parallel to the body, and to which the floating lever is pivotally connected on an axis likewise substantially parallel to the body, a spring acting on said carrier tending to depress the floating lever pivot, a spring acting on the upper octave hole'stopper tending to depress said stopper, and an arm pivotally mounted on the same axis as the arm of the upper octave hole stopper and extending in the same direction as said stopper arm from said axis and in such rigid association with the stopper arm as to be depressed by the last named spring, said last named arm being arranged to bear on and depress the second named arm of the floating lever.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

ALLEN LOOMIS. 

